The Week In Review: Culture Warring, Idol Mourning, Kingsmen Awesomeness, and Way More

To (help) ease the randomness, I’m just gonna start grouping my weekly roundup tidbits into categories. It’ll kill two birds with one stone by making it look like I have more to say than I really do while simultaneously making it a bit easier to find what you’re interested in and ignore everything else.

On the faith and culture front:

*David French’s open letter to “post-partisan” evangelicals has been quite heavily circulated this past week, and it is a must-must-read. Hat tip to Justin Taylor through Denny Burk. French is frank, honest, insightful and to the point. The message is simple: Culture warriors, stay the course. In the course of his letter, he uses popular post-partisan speaker/author Jonathan Merritt as a foil. I’d never heard of Merritt, and after reading his truly pathetic response, I don’t feel as though I’ve missed much. Denny Burk has offered a brief but on-point rebuttal of Merritt’s response here. I also encourage you to read some of the debate underneath Denny’s initial post on the letter here. A regular reader named Joe Blackmon makes some deft comments in response to certain stock Christian left arguments.

*Speaking of culture wars, sometimes I think that maybe with the (right and proper) focus on the abortion issue, other urgent life issues don’t get quite as much attention as they should. But conservatives of all stripes should be aware that the elderly and severely disabled are in grave danger as well. See this chilling article by a son who wishes he could kill his mother as an example.

On the entertainment front:

*Jessica Sanchez lost the Idol crown to Phillip Phillips. ‘K so, I pretty much lost interest in this season around the top ten, but at least Jessica could actually, um… sing? Here’s Jessica. Here’s Phillip. You decide.

*Oh dear. Battleship was so mercilessly Hulk-smashed by The Avengers at the box office this weekend it’s not even funny. Speaking of, James Cameron should be checking his rear-view mirror on the all-time top-grossing chart, ‘cuz Earth’s mightiest heroes are catching up. Frankly, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of films that deserve to be in the top fifty, let alone the top ten, but if it’s a choice between Hulk and Leonard DiCaprio, or a giant blue smurf… Hulk aaaaall the way. And Joss Whedon versus Cameron on the writing front? Don’t even get me started.

On the southern gospel front:

*The Mark Trammell Quartet webcast had technical difficulties, so it was cancelled. I encourage you to keep ASGM in your prayers, since this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened. We’ll continue to cheer them on as they work through their difficulties.

*Union Street is on track to raise the money they need for their debut album. There’s just under a week to go if you’d still like to donate.[Update: Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, they raised about $6000 between this morning and the time I put this post together. Now they’re over their goal. Way to go!]

*Here’s a new trio you should check out: Barry Rowland & Deliverance. Southern Gospel fans should all recognize the name of Kyla Rowland, one of the most respected songwriters in the genre. This trio is composed of her son, his wife, and a friend named Shawn Rupert on baritone. They’re already among the best-sounding trios on the road today. Read Brian Crout’s take on their latest project here and listen to samples here.

*Speaking of trios, check out Aaron Swain’s concert review of new young trio Promise.

*Here’s a taste of what the new Kingsmen sound like. In a word… glooooory! This lineup is going places:

I _finally_ read David French’s column. Can’t believe it’s taken me this long. One thing that comes out of it loud and clear, even though he doesn’t say it in so many words: The so-called “post-partisan Christians” are, in fact, partisan. He was an example in his supposedly non-partisan phase. He espoused homosexual “marriage” in an attempt to bolster his “non-partisan” credentials! Which is a joke: How is arguing for the overturning of traditional marriage, a darling cause of the left, a radical position that furthers the leftist sexual revolution, even remotely non-partisan? It obviously isn’t. Moreover, environmentalism is not apolitical. It’s political. If one is an ardent environmentalist, one is going to be in favor of specific policy positions, laws, etc. Same for so-called “economic justice”–one is going to have a certain political bent in the economic realm.

He mentions the mainline denominations at the end, which definitely supports this point. Check out the Episcopal Church. Are they post-partisan? Non-partisan? Hahahahaha! No way.

So, essentially, to say, “We want to be post-partisan evangelicals” is just to deceive oneself, because what it really means is, “We want to be definitely and identifiably more left-leaning evangelicals than those who have gone before us. Maybe even a _lot_ more left-leaning.”

Went and saw “Battleship” today… and I was very pleasantly surprised! Very intense storyline, and didn’t come across as cheap or cheesy at all. The subtle connections to the board game were interesting to watch.

I did hear in fairness that the final battle helped salvage it to some extent. I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to the theater to see it though. Meanwhile, I’ve decided that _The Avengers_ is this generation’s Star Wars. 🙂 In all seriousness, yes of course the comparison is a little unfair, but upon re-watching it, I actually got a little of the same feeling that I got from the original trilogy. The hefty percentage of instantly quotable dialogue, the smart action set pieces, the natural acting, the engaging characters (even a few that recall similar types from Star Wars), and so forth.

But I fear that like Star Wars IV, this will be about as good as it gets and it’s all downhill from here. Thus is the way of the Franchise.